I was responding to @ellemo78’s post and it reminded me of this gifset that I wanted to post here:
“Emma Swan Has Just as Much of a Villain’s Backstory as Anyone:” (Source)
That person has SUCH a good point; I’ve thought about how sad and horrible Emma’s life was, and about whether the villains were justified in what they did based on what happened to them, but I never really put it together this perfectly. Emma has been through just as much–if not more–than the villains on this show, but she’s still an incredible person who, aside from some minor stealing for survival, has never descended into any kind of “villainy”. This is one of the reasons why I love this character so much!